CASSIDY'S COURTSHIP

by Sharon Mignerey

  A chorus of "good-nights" followed her through the door. "Me, too," Jack said. He paused at the porch step and took one of Brenna's hands in both of his. "I'm real happy to have you in our home."

  Brenna met his eyes, which were as warm as his work-hardened hands. She almost thought she heard the word family instead of home. "Thank you."

  Grandmom stood and followed him into the house. She paused just inside the screen door. "There are two pieces of pie."

  "I knew it." Cole pulled Brenna to her feet. He smacked his lips. "Grandmom's pie at bedtime. Almost the best thing in the world."

  At the age of ten, he had been sure nothing would surpass apple pie at bedtime. Now that he was thirty something, he could think of a number of things. At the top of the list was having Brenna James pressed close to him with nothing but heat separating them.

  His body responded to his sensual promise to himself, and with effort he channeled his thoughts back to the companionable conversation between Brenna and Grandmom.

  They dished up the pie and two large glasses of milk. Grandmom sat down with them. The conversation gradually turned to matters dealing with the ranch, and Brenna excused herself. Cole squeezed her hand as she left the kitchen, but continued to give Grandmom his attention. Worry was in her voice, and though Brenna would have preferred his company, she didn't begrudge his choosing to spend the time with his grandmother.

  After she showered, she sat for a long time in the dark, looking out the window, listening to the companionable sound of crickets chirping, watching the moon and bright stars. She finally lay down and drifted off to sleep, more content and at peace with herself than she remembered being in a long time. She woke to the sound of something pattering against the screen.

  A clandestine sound, full of invitation. She got out of bed and looked out. Cole stood in the yard, his silhouette looking unnaturally large in the moonlight. She smiled and waved at him.

  He put his fingers to his lips, and motioned for her to join him. She nodded, and quickly dressed.

  A few robins called, and the sky was black except for a strip of gray at the horizon. When she stepped outside a few minutes later, the scent of dew permeated the air.

  "Good morning," Cole whispered, drawing her into his arms and giving her a thorough kiss. "Ready to go see my pond at sunrise?"

  "Yes."

  "I don't just want to watch the sun come up," he said. The need in his eyes made it impossible to misunderstand what he meant, especially after he added, "I intend to make love with you."

  "I know," she said, heat flowing suddenly through her.

  "Ah, Brenna," he said, giving her another kiss. "If you only knew how long I've waited for this."

  He picked up a folded plaid blanket from the picnic table near the back door and led her out of the yard.

  The path to the pond was illuminated by the setting moon. The water was mirror-smooth, reflecting the pale predawn sky. Near the fallen log where she and Cole had sat on the previous afternoon, he spread out the blanket. Sitting down, he took off his sneakers, and Brenna followed suit. They stretched out, and by unspoken mutual consent didn't touch each other. Cole rested his chin on folded hands. The lonely call of an owl echoed across the pond.

  As the sky became lighter, Brenna's senses heightened. Coupled with her anticipation was her awareness of the pond and its inhabitants. The secret sounds of night became her own, and its peace became hers as well. With the soft flutter of huge wings, the blue heron settled on the shallow end of the pond, silhouetted against the pale gray-gold sky.

  In the distance a rooster crowed, and Brenna's attention shifted from the pond to the horizon. It wasn't going to be a spectacular sunrise, because not a single cloud filled the sky—just the promise of another hot sunny day.

  "Herons are the most magnificent birds," Cole whispered.

  The big bird gracefully waded into the pond.

  "I wonder where his mate is?" Brenna asked.

  "She's probably sitting on a nest somewhere."

  Cole brushed a kiss at her forehead, then trailed his lips down the side of her face. "I'm glad I'm here with you." He kissed her lightly and drew back just far enough to look in her eyes. They were smoky. He waited, as if he knew she wanted to kiss him just as much as he wanted her to.

  He brushed his hand down her hair. "Do you know this is where I'd planned to seduce you?"

  "Did you?" Her voice was no more than a whisper.

  His fingers slid to her nape. "That's why I brought you here, fair lady. To the ranch. To the pond. So you could see who I was."

  "A farm boy?"

  After a second's hesitation, he nodded. "I used to hate thinking so."

  "And now?"

  His mouth hovered closer. "And now … I want to make love to you the way I've been dreaming since the first time I saw you."

  "At the bar?" Her lips touched his cheek.

  "At my office. The day you came to give your deposition." He drew back just enough to sear her face with a warm, intimate glance. "The most unlawyerly thoughts I've ever had."

  "If anyone had ever told me then I'd been here with you now. Like this. And liking it—"

  "You like it?" His lips trailed from her chin up the line of her jaw to the soft shell of her ear.

  "I … love it."

  She lifted her face the scant inch to touch his lips with her own, her excitement growing. Alone. They were alone at last. Fulfilling a fantasy she hadn't known he'd had. Just the two of them and a golden sunrise.

  She held perfectly still and closed her eyes, content for this instant to feel the soft caress of his lips touching hers. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she turned slightly and brought herself more closely within his embrace. He sighed, and she parted her lips, wanting the sweet invasion of his mouth.

  Cole rolled on his back, pulling Brenna astride with her legs on either side of him. He pulled her head down, giving her the deep kiss she wanted as he pulled her soft cotton knit shirt out of the waistband of her jeans and slid his palms up her back. He already knew she was braless, but the confirmation under his hard palm spanning her back sent heat surging through his veins and pooling hotly at his groin.

  "Ah, Brenna," he murmured pressing kisses over her cheeks, her jaw, her eyes, before returning to her mouth. "We've finally made it, haven't we?"

  She brought her palms on either side of his face and lifted her own far enough away to meet his eyes. "I want you," she whispered. "I'm beginning to think I've wanted you forever."

  Her confession made loving her an urgent thing that could wait no longer. He lifted his head to capture her mouth in a long kiss. He skimmed his hands down her back, then up her sides, lingering at the swell of her breasts. They curved fully from her sides, skin silkier yet than any he had touched. The urge to look at her became even stronger than his desire to touch her, and he pulled her arms through her shirtsleeves, breaking the kiss only long enough to pull the shirt over her head.

  He kissed her again, cherishing her mouth the way he imagined cherishing her body. He pulled back far enough to look at her, and his breath caught. Full. Round. Lovely. Ivory skin and tightly puckered, deep rose nipples.

  "Oh, Brenna," he whispered, his eyes meeting hers.

  Bathed within his silent approval, Brenna shivered, not from the almost cool morning air, but from the invisible tightening of her body. When his warm hands cupped her, she shivered again. "I've dreamed so long of being alone with you just like this."

  He raised his head until his mouth touched hers, his fingers gently kneading the flesh of her full breasts, his thumbs at last lightly grazing across her nipples. Brenna's breath hitched. Her glance dropped to his hands touching her, his skin dark against hers. He teased the nipples again, loving the sounds she made, loving the way she pressed her pelvis against him, loving the way her feminine body looked beneath his hands.

  She pulled his open shirt out of his waistband, and flowed back into his arms. The touch of his chest against her was wo
nderful, and she wound her fingers through his hair. The heaven of skin touching skin, unbroken from their mouths to their jeans soon became another form of torture. Cole shifted, rolling her to her side, cupping her derriere and pulling her against him.

  He couldn't resist teasing her. He hooked a finger under her waistband behind the zipper. "Want to wait another couple of days?"

  Boldly, she cupped his sex, hidden by his jeans, thrusting into her hand. Brenna trembled, savoring his blatant need. She traced a finger down the center of his chest, opened her eyes and smiled sweetly. "I can stand it if you can."

  His answer was a groan as he ground himself into her teasing palm. His lips sought the valley between her breasts, and he nuzzled her velvet skin, lost in the sensation of her soft breast at his cheek. He traced a path with his tongue to the tip of her breast.

  "Beautiful, so beautiful," he murmured the instant before pulling her breast gently into his mouth, just as the first rays of the sun burst from the horizon.

  The sudden light streaming across them was no more intense than Brenna's response to his touch. Warmth shattered through her, pulsing, surging ever downward. Over and over she pressed her lips across his sunlit head in soft kisses. His gentle tonguing of her breast changed to more insistent sucking, and the ache inside Brenna intensified again. He nuzzled her other breast and gave it the same complete loving. She fumbled at his zipper. She wanted him naked. Now. Even so, her fingers trembled at the snap of his jeans.

  Cole reluctantly left her breast, on fire from her artless response to him. He wanted to help her with the fastening to his jeans but he loved watching her free him from the denim. The snap popped open, and she sighed as she lowered the zipper. Impatiently she shoved his jeans and shorts over his hips. Her hands lightly tracing down his thighs and dancing across his stomach were absolutely the most erotic thing he had ever seen or felt.

  A single drop from him appeared and glistened in the sunlight, which she caught with her fingertip and smoothed over his velvet skin, making him shimmer like polished amber. The achingly light pressure of her cool fingers against his hot skin caused him to jerk, then press himself more urgently into her hand, silently telling her he loved her touch. Cole tore his gaze away from her loving ministrations and unfastened her jeans. He lifted her hips away from the blanket and pulled her jeans over her bare feet, then finished kicking off his own.

  Her body was dappled in sunlight and shade, but the most beautiful shadow fell at the apex of her thighs. She parted her legs for his hand. Trembling beneath the onslaught of sensation, she ached for his intimate caress. When his fingers at last reached their destination, she whispered, "Yes … oh, Cole … yes."

  He wrapped her inside his arms, capturing her mouth in a kiss, wholly exploring it with the promise of completion. Brenna slid her hands up his back, absorbed in all his textures. The sleekness of his hair. The warmth of his body covering hers. The incredible sensation of his hair-roughened skin teasing each of her nerve endings into wonderfully alive pleasure points. Her breasts flattened into his chest, but she wanted even closer.

  He kissed her, cherishing her lips as he cherished the vestibule of her womanhood, seeking the depths of her month as he sought the depths of her body.

  "Please," she whispered.

  "Please, what?" Cole's eyes reflected the same deep need that his loving hands called forth from her.

  She had never wanted anything as much as she wanted to be one with him. She licked her lips and feathered her hands down his back. "Please love me. Now."

  Cole rolled away from her, and for a split second Brenna was terrified he'd leave her in this aching vulnerability. When she saw the flat foil wrapped package he had pulled from the pocket of his jeans, she held out her hand.

  "Let me." She took the package from him, opened it, and lovingly fitted its contents to his hard length. She smiled at him, urging him closer for what she suspected would be her last lucid thought. "Thank you," she whispered.

  Her extra attention to make him feel desirable at the moment of sheathing was as brand-new as the day. He caught her mouth in a deep kiss, his fingers gently urging the bud of her femininity to again throb for him. She sighed into his mouth and her hands urged him closer, yet closer still. An initial tiny tightening of her flesh when he touched her told him she hadn't been this close to any man in a long, long time. It shouldn't have mattered, but the knowledge pleased him, excited him.

  Brenna's soft exclamation was lost under his purring groan as he held both of them perfectly still, caught in an endless moment of exquisite beauty. Cole opened his eyes and gazed down at her, her face bathed in clear sunlight, her lips swollen from his kisses, her eyes dark with passion. For him.

  She smiled and raised her hand to caress his cheek. He turned his head just enough to press a kiss into her palm.

  Their eyes locked, he began to move, and she met him in a sensuous counter-dance. Their tempo increased and Brenna felt the first waves of her release begin to pulse from her depths. This had never happened within a man's embrace, nor with this kind of intensity. She wanted to open herself even wider to Cole's loving invasion of her body, in awe that it was possible for one person to give this much pleasure to another. Her eyes held fast with his, and she could not have looked away if she had wanted to. Nothing was as important as Cole moving within her, the only reality the surging rhythms of ecstasy bubbling from her core. One by one they burst through, each shattering with its completeness, each more intense than the previous one. The cry on her lips was Cole's name, the man she held passionately with her gaze and her body was Cole.

  The surging sweetness of Brenna pulsing around him was an irresistible lure to him, pulling him more deeply within her velvet softness. Cole abandoned himself to the timeless rhythms of her body. Beautiful. Brenna. Beloved. His climax burst through him, as dazzling as sunlight sparkling in a profusion of diamond lights over a blue pond.

  * * *

  Chapter 17

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  Brenna snuggled closer to Cole, her satisfaction complete. He held her securely within the crook of his arm, his breathing so even she assumed he was asleep. She raised her eyes to the firm outline of his jaw, then propped herself up on one elbow to study him more closely. She found his eyes wide open and as bright as the morning. His expression reflected a satisfaction as great as her own.

  "Your loving is the most wonderful gift I've ever had," he said, tracing a finger down the side of her face and neck, then following the contours of her collarbone.

  His statement both pleased and shocked her, answering her unspoken question. She knew how heart-shattering it had been for her. That he might have found it equally moving…

  "Yours, too. I've never…" Her voice faded as the words she sought escaped her.

  He grinned, lifted his head to kiss her temple, and pressed her head back against his chest. "You've never?"

  She didn't know how to tell him that his touch made her fantasies pale beneath reality. His confession demanded she be equally forthright. "You're the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me."

  Cole smoothed his hand over her hair. "I'm glad." He slanted her a teasing glance. "Maybe it's the place."

  She tilted her head against his arm and smiled at him. "Think so?"

  He caressed her with the flat surface of his hand from neck to waist, his fingers returning to curl around her breast, his palm accepting its weight. "We'll have to do some research to find out for sure."

  "What kind of research?" Brenna began her own exploration within the swirls of hair covering his chest.

  Cole rolled her off his shoulder and touched her nipple with his tongue, making it glisten, then softly blew on it until it puckered into a hard knot. "We'll probably have to try making love again right here, just to see if the results are the same."

  Brenna's breath caught in her throat as little separate shocks flickered to her core that had been wholly satisfied the moment before. "And if it is?"

  He sm
iled. "Then we'll have to expand the scope of our study. Try a motel on the way home."

  She arched into him, offering him her other breast. "And then?"

  He took the offering of her silken skin, sucking deeply until the nipple on his tongue was as hard as its twin. Her question was forgotten, and the only thing that remained was to warm himself within the sunlight that was Brenna. His caresses became more urgent as his body responded to the memory of her sensual heat. Though he would have denied its possibility an hour before, he wanted her more now than he ever had.

  "Brenna?" His voice was hoarse with the need that tightened his body.

  She understood the question behind his ragged breathing. Her eyes rose to his, her expression full of wonder. "I didn't expect to want you again." Her hands traveled down his body. "Like this." She stroked the inside of his thighs. "So soon."

  "Kiss me, Brenna," he commanded softly, rolling her onto her back. "Open your sweet mouth, and kiss me."

  His words inflamed her, and in that moment she would have died rather than deny his sensuous request. She pulled his head down, her open mouth inviting his exploration. All thought fled, and her skin became a shimmering surface aching for his touch.

  She pulled him close, needing him with an intensity that was almost frightening. Scooping her into his arms, he spread her legs with his knees, then held himself rigid, not … quite … touching her. She met his gaze, aching for him in a way she hadn't thought possible. His pupils grew very black, and he lowered his body the fractional inch required to complete contact. It felt good. So good.

  He groaned, then sheathed himself within her, easing the awful ache. Almost at once, they both began to move, the rhythm escalating.

  His rhythm broke for a fraction of a heartbeat as he brought Brenna more deeply within his arms. This is what she'd been dreaming of and hadn't known it. This is what she'd needed her whole life and hadn't known it. She wrapped her arms around him, fiercely, as though he might be wrenched from her embrace. She'd die if that happened.

  Icy fear rose to the surface, and her conscience rose for one last stab at her. How could you do this to him?